EL PASO COUNTY, COLO. -- A handful of homeowners in El Paso County are upset after a local concrete company took their money and never completed the work.
Jeremy Eckels, owner of JE Concrete, formerly known as Concrete Innovations, is accused of stealing thousands of dollars from multiple people in the Pikes Peak region.
His alleged victims said Eckels would take their money for materials and then skip out on the work, or only complete a portion of it.
"He came out and finished the job in a week. It is a beautiful patio, he did a great job as far as I was concerned. I had no reason to distrust him," Deanne Culp said.
So Culp hired Eckels to do some additional concrete work in her front yard. She said she paid him $2,300 up front for materials and labor, and only got $500 worth of completed work.
"We left for vacation July 30, 2009, and we came home August 12 to a muddy mess. He had not come back, he had not done one single thing since we had left," Culp said.
Culp said from that point on she was not able to get ahold of Eckels for months, until one day she showed up at his home and demanded he return her money or finish the job.
When Eckels refused, Culp decided she was going to go looking for additional victims, and that is when she met Erika and Bobby Sounakhene.
"We wanted to have a stamped concrete patio put in our backyard as well as a walkway, so we found JE Concrete on Craigslist and everything sounded great so we hired him to be our contractor," Erika Sounakhene said.
The Sounakhenes said Eckels also completed their back patio on time, but added he did not pay the concrete company for the materials he used, leaving them with a $1,700 bill.
"The cement company was kind enough after hearing our situation that they would dissolve out part of what was owed for our home," Sounakhene said.
It was a lucky scenario for the Sounakhenes who in the end only lost a couple hundred dollars, unlike Culp and others FOX21 New spoke with who are out thousands.
"I do not expect to get my money back from him. I just want him to stop hurting other people," Culp said.
FOX21 News reporter's attempts over the past few days to get a hold of JE Concrete and Jeremy Eckels were unsuccessful.
The 4th Judicial District Attorney's Office said there are three criminal cases against Eckels at this time.
Anyone who may have been scammed by JE Concrete the District Attorney's office are asked to call a local law enforcement agency.
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